General News

Stan Lee, who was hospitalized on Wednesday for an irregular heartbeat, was released from Cedars Sanai hospital yesterday and reports that he is “feeling great”.

“All I really want to do is tell you that I’m feeling great,” Lee told KABC via Skype. “I’m glad I spent that evening in the hospital. It did me a lot of good, now I’m home and looking for new trouble we get in to. You know, the usual…I figured that a little check up wouldn’t be bad for me. And in fact it turned out to be pretty good, it got me a lot of publicity. I didn’t realize the whole world worried if I was in the hospital of not.”

We do, Generalissimo.

The 95-year-old creator of so many comic book characters that have become central to the biggest blockbusters of recent years, has kept on the go with a seeming non-stop run of convention appearances.

It’s time to come out of our holiday-induced coma and get caught up on the news, so here is some rapidfire TidBits…

Sadly, we have learned that actress Heather Menzies-Urich, wife of late actor Robert Urich and best known as Louisa in The Sound Of Music, passed away on December 24th at the age of 68. Obscure SF TV fans may also known her for playing Jessica in the TV series version of Logan’s Run.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi added another $99 million over the holiday weekend, although analysts expected more from the weekend. Fans seem to be greatly debating the merits of the movie…from our point of view it was a good movie but with a slew of technical problems. Expect a spoiler-laden review later this week.

In the meantime, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle appeared to get a big turnout from holiday audiences looking for something lighthearted, getting $72m since the Wednesday open and including $2m from the Amazon Prime Members preview earlier in the month. It’s definitely a good movie for audiences looking for a laugh. The Greatest Showman, which appears to be fighting critical reviews as well as the competition, only made $19m for the same six days, but we think is a great musical film with several Oscar-worthy songs.

Syfy has given an early third season pickup to its vampire world series Van Helsing, ahead of the second season finale which airs January 4th.

The series stars Kelly Overton (True Blood) as Vanessa Helsing, a distant relative of famous vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, who comes “back to life” after a three year coma to find out that vampires have taken over during the Rising, while she is protected by a marine and the doctor who saved her so that she might lead a resistance against the vampires.

Star Wars creator George Lucas wants to build a a billion-dollar museum focused on art that tells stories, and he’s finally found a home for it in Los Angeles, not far from his alma mater USC.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will be located near Exposition Park, near the Los Angeles Coliseum, where currently there are parking lots, and is designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, with a design that evokes a sleek, spaceship-like shape. Inside there will be 265,000–275,000 square feet of space, with nearly 100,000 square feet for galleries. Parking will be created underground for up to 1800 vehicles.

Originally Lucas had looked to Chicago, and later San Francisco’s Treasure Island, but L.A. won out.

The board of directors released the following statement:

“After extensive due diligence and deliberation, the Board of Directors of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is pleased to announce plans to build the museum in Exposition Park in Los Angeles. We have been humbled by the overwhelmingly positive support we received from both San Francisco and Los Angeles during our selection process. Settling on a location proved to be an extremely difficult decision precisely because of the desirability of both sites and cities.

The board wishes to extend a special thanks to Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for their tremendous efforts and engagement. While each location offers many unique and wonderful attributes, South Los Angeles’s Promise Zone best positions the museum to have the greatest impact on the broader community, fulfilling our goal of inspiring, engaging and educating a broad and diverse visitorship. Exposition Park is a magnet for the region and accessible from all parts of the city. As a museum uniquely focused on narrative art, we look forward to becoming part of a dynamic museum community, surrounded by more than 100 elementary and high schools, one of the country’s leading universities as well as three other world-class museums.

Now we turn our attention to finalizing the details and building what we believe will be one of the most imaginative and inclusive art museums in the world—a global destination that all Angelenos and Californians will be proud to call their own.”

Just posting to let you know that Sci-Fi Storm is still alive and well…the news scene has been exceedingly slow over the holiday break, so I’ve been enjoying some time off myself and working on a variety of other things and just in general relaxing…hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and looking forward to what’s on tap in 2015!

After the success of the first anti-bullying panel at San Diego Comic-Con, New York Comic-Con will host the panel this weekend, as well as the Pop Culture Anti-Bullying Coalition.

In a groundbreaking move, New York Comic-Con has invited Pop Culture Anti-Bullying Coalition (@AntiBullyingCo) to exhibit at its upcoming event, which draws 100,000 fans annually and will take place at the Javits Center on October 10 – 13, 2013.

Created by actress Chase Masterson (“Star Trek” / “Doctor Who Big Finish”) and award-winning author Carrie Goldman (Harper Collins’ “Bullied”), the Coalition will have experienced staff on-hand all weekend at Booth 630 to talk with teens, young adults, kids, parents, and educators on how to overcome bullying.

“We’re not just here to stand up against bullying. Everybody knows that needs to stop,” said Masterson. “NYCC’s invitation to Pop Culture Anti-Bullying Coalition marks the first time that the movement to overcome bullying is at the heart of a con experience. With the NYCC team, we’re making a safe, go-to place where kids and adults can find resources, healing and answers.”(continue reading…)

Remember when the estate for author J.R.R. Tolkien filed suit against Warner Bros over a Lord Of The Rings-themed online gambling game? Well, it seems that Warner Bros has won the first round.

Warner Bros (and Saul Zentz, the longtime rights holder) filed a countersuit in March against the estate, claiming that the initial lawsuit “hurt financially and had its rights to the author’s properties undermined,” and that it had to cancel the licensing agreement with Microgaming because of the suit, and that the estate has been receiving royalties from the agreement that was re-worked in 2010 already.

Today, a federal judge dismissed the motion by the plaintiffs to have the counterclaims dismissed, allowing the countersuit to move forward.

I’m in Toronto for the Syfy Digital Press Tour, and will be visiting the sets of Defiance and Warehouse 13. I’ll be tweeting and taking pictures via Instagram (user scifistorm) as much as possible. And you can also see tweets from myself and other press members below.

Got questions for the cast and crew? Tweet me (@scifistorm) and include the hashtag #syfytour and I will try and ask it during the panel!